CBS Films Acquires 'Skyjack: The Hunt For D.B. Cooper' For Will Gluck To Direct

EXCLUSIVE: Easy A helmer Will Gluck is at the center of a deal that CBS Films is making for the bestselling Geoffrey Gray novelSkyjack: The Hunt For D.B. Cooper, which was published by Crown. Gluck is in talks to direct and produce via his Olive Bridge banner, and Keith Bunin will write the script. Bunin scripted episodes of the HBO series In Treatment, and is writing for Universal and Illumination Entertainment a live-action film about the life of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) as a vehicle for Johnny Depp to star in and produce.

The Skyjack novel is an action-comedy that follows the story of D.B. Cooper, who on November 24, 1971, hijacked a Boeing 727, demanded $200,000 and parachutes, and jumped out over the Pacific Northwest. He was never caught and hailed as a folk hero. The book tracks his story from the perspectives of three different people claiming to be him. Gluck most recently co-wrote, directed and produced Friends With Benefits, the romantic comedy that starred Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. He is in the middle of a Sony Pictures deal for movies and series, and this is a rare project outside that arrangement.

Gluck is repped by UTA. Bunin is repped by Kaplan/Perrone and CAA, and CAA reps the author as well. CBS Films execs Maria Faillace and Mark Ross are overseeing the film.

For CBS Films, which has made acquisitions a big part of its slate, it becomes another filmmaker-driven homegrown project, much like the upcoming Seven Psychopaths by In Bruges helmer Martin McDonagh.